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Quick HitAshlee RezinMonday March 25th, 2013, 5:31pm

CPS High School Students Protest Impending School Actions (VIDEO)

On the first day of spring break, a group of approximately 20 high
school students marched to City Hall to deliver a letter to Mayor Rahm
Emanuel today, announcing their opposition to last week’s announcement
from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) that 54 schools will be closed and
another six are slated for turnaround.

“All CPS students are
victims of this bad policy, because CPS is not listening to student
voices,” said Israel Munoz, a senior at Thomas Kelly High School
in Chicago’s West Side neighborhood of Brighton Park. “Shutting down
public education anywhere in the city makes victims of students
everywhere in the city.”

The student coalition, called the Chicago
Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS) marched to City Hall
after a brief press conference at CPS Headquarters. Largely concerned
with gang violence in neighborhoods slated for numerous closures, they
each signed a letter written for Emanuel that spoke out against the
impending school actions.

"We represent the thousands of students
in Chicago Public Schools that will be directly affected by school
closings," the letter reads.

For the disproportionate effect of school closings on minority communities — approximately 80 percent of students impacted are African-American — the
letter calls the school closures a “racist decision.” The students
demanded an elected school board, an immediate moratorium on school
closings and the use of TIF funds for public education.

“Being a
resident of Englewood helps me to understand the importance of education
and also the consequences of mis-education; I see too many homeless
people and gang-involved people on our streets because they don’t have
an education,” said Brian Stirgus, a senior at Paul Robeson High School
in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood.

Stirgus, a
graduate of Benjamin Banneker Elementary School, which is slated to be
merged with Benjamin E. Mays Elementary Academy, said “danger lies
ahead” for students who may now have to cross gang lines to get to
school. He said because the two schools are on opposite sides of Halsted
Street, students would be crossing gang territories.

“Innocent
bystanders are always the ones to be hurt, so why potentially put kids in
more danger by having them cross these gang lines,” he asked. “I know
personally I was much safer as a student when I knew that I could go to a
school that was less than five minutes from my house.”

Felicia
Davis, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Public Engagement,
politely received the students’ letter and noted she would deliver it to
the mayor, but did not comment.

Here’s more from Munoz:

CPS
is touting this wave of school closures as a cost-cutting initiative.
According to district officials, CPS is targeting low-performing and
underutilized schools as it faces a $1 billion deficit. The actions will allegedly save the district $560 million over the next
decade.

The students plan to attend the Chicago Teachers Union rally at Daley Plaza, which is scheduled for this Wednesday, March 27, at 4 p.m.

Alexssa
Moore, a senior at Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy High
School in West Englewood on Chicago’s South Side, says she is scared for
her 13-year-old, seventh grade brother who, although his school was
spared from the final list of closures, has to walk to school.

“He
has to walk to school every day by himself, and I couldn’t imagine what
would happen to him if he had to travel even farther,” she said. Her
brother attends Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School, which was included on CPS’ preliminary list of 129 schools slated for closure.

After
34 community meetings during which the district heard from some 20,000 residents, CPS
whittled the list down to the 61 schools slated for action.

Calling
CPS “short-sighted,” Moore listed four gangs offhand that had a presence
in her neighborhood and said she couldn’t protect her brother all of the
time.

“A bullet doesn’t have a name,” she said. “When it’s just
him walking by himself, there’s no telling what could happen. These
young kids crossing gang territories to get to school is unacceptable.”